Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 7/13/21

How COVID-19 is affecting hourly work

Weekly Hourly Hiring Report 7/13/21

Highlights

Overall jobs are up 65% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 1% month over month decline and 83% year over year growth. Google searches for hourly jobs are down 32% year over year.

While countries around the world have tried to diagnose and address the root cause of the labor shortage, no one has found the silver bullet. In the U.S., ending unemployment benefits early did not result in more workers returning to the labor market as expected. And it should be noted that increase in pay isn’t the entire answer either.

COVID-19 put tens of millions of people out of work and displaced many others—the job market we’re returning to isn’t the same as the one we left behind in March of 2020. Trained workers changed verticals and stayed, others have retired early or are having trouble justifying the cost of childcare even if they are lucky enough to have found a reliable solution.

All that to say, the demand for workers remains strong and layoffs are historically low year over year.

• It’s about more than increased wages. This week McDonald’s announced it will be providing emergency child care to help attract workers to stores across the U.S, as child care remains a top barrier for workers. 

• Could there be a mismatch? Economists are calling this phenomenon in job market recovery “mismatch” a disconnect between the jobs open and the people looking for work. Some Fed officials believe a skills gap is to blame—e.g., unemployed construction, real estate and manufacturing workers aren’t qualified for jobs growing in other sectors like education and health.

• The uneven and cautious return of workers to some industries, e.g., restaurants and hospitality, is leaving a lasting impact. Though the latest jobs report showed restaurants and bars added 194,000 jobs in June, employment at these establishments remains down by 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began. 

Jobs

All industry data is from 3/2/20-7/13/21

Here are the latest job numbers by industry:

Quick service restaurant (QSR) jobs are down 21% compared to pre-pandemic norms, flat month over month growth and 6% year over year growth.

Sit-down restaurant jobs are down 33% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 8% month over month growth and 17% year over year growth.

Warehouse and logistics jobs are up 226% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 14% month over month decline and a 145% year over year decline.

Retail jobs are up 3% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 7% month over month decline and 32% year over year growth.

Grocery jobs are up 79% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 2% month over month decline and 65% year over year growth.

Hospitality jobs are up 311% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 31% month over month growth and 365% year over year growth.

On demand jobs are up 154% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing a 6% month over month decline and 186% year over year growth.

Convenience store jobs are down 16% compared to pre-pandemic norms, seeing 2% month over month growth and a 4% year over year decline.

Healthcare jobs are up 99% compared to pre-pandemic norms, 5% month over month growth and 90% year over year growth.

Workers

Google searches for hourly jobs are down 32% year over year.

The bottom line

We’ll continue to be your best resource for hourly job market insights as we collectively navigate towards our new normal and beyond.